Hey guys, familiar story here. I saw an old Hobie 18 for sale and bought it knowing nothing about sailing or Hobies. It is a 1982 in decent shape and I spent last summer figuring everything out and learning to sail on a freshwater lake in east TN. She is solid, cleaned up nicely, and fortunately had everything needed to go sailing. There are a few things I need addressed by the forum.

1) My mast has the flapper piece at the hook and I did struggle hoisting and latching the main sometimes. Should I remove it or not?

2) Other than shroud anchor pins, what else should be replaced? The rigging looks great but how do I tell if I have the updated crossbar anchors?

3) My biggest problem is leaky hulls. The port hull would have 1-2 gallons of water in it by the end of a day sailing and the starboard hull would be about half full of water. So I plan to suck some epoxy into the dagger well flanges, (someone has previously gooped something in there) replace the cracked drain plug ports, and do a bottom job before I take her out this summer. Is there any thing else I should look at? I have the pop in port hole caps but they should be fine for light wind lake sailing.

4) Spider cracks in the finish at different places of the boat. Again no soft spots but what are these indicating? See the pics of the transom.

I am not planning on racing or going to the ocean I just want her to be sound for family fun.

Thanks in advance for the help. Searching this forum answered a lot of questions and saved me a lot of head scratching!

Here are a few pics

Oh yea, and what happens when you load the cat with a hull full of water!

Most of your questions have already been answered in prior posts, so I'll keep answers here brief. Poke around and use the search function, you should find everything you need.

1) My opinion, remove the flapper. New masts have not had it for over 25 years. It tends to cause more headach than good.

2) Your boat does not have the updated crossbar anchors (determined by looking at your pics). The upgraded anchor is the same plate that is used on your shrouds, it has four bolts that thru-bolt the hull. It's a good idea to do this upgrade. Also, if the age of your standing rigging is unknown, you may want to consider replacing it even if it looks good.

3) Leaky hulls, first step should be do a soapy water/bubble test. You have to find the leaks before you can repair them. I guarantee having half your hull full of water did not come from a leaky drain plug seal. There is a big issue going on somewhere. Find it first, then figure out how to repair.

4) Spider cracks on the transom don't look to bad. The hull flexes when loaded. As long as they're not buldging, deeply cracked, or seeping water, they should be ok.

1) My mast has the flapper piece at the hook and I did struggle hoisting and latching the main sometimes. Should I remove it or not?

Dremel it off, leaving just the hook.

Then make sure you have a halyard ring (looks like you do), when standing in front of the mast about to connect the ring to the head of the main, let the main halyard hang naturally, then twist it four or five time "away" from the side of the mast that has the hook. Then as you raise the sail the ring will automatically want to twist back toward the hook at the top. If you get this right it will hook first time every time. (this assumes everything is in working order)

To unhook, disconnect your rotation limiter and downhaul, then raise the sail off the hook by pulling on the main halyard, keeping tension, rotate the mast using the rotation limiter away from the hook, release the halyard and you are unhooked.

hillbilly_sailor wrote:

2) Other than shroud anchor pins, what else should be replaced? The rigging looks great but how do I tell if I have the updated crossbar anchors?

Inspect everything, compare your boat to the assembly manual and parts catalog, make sure everything matches. Furlers sometimes need to be rebuilt. Check the plastic pulleys the main halyard crosses at the top and bottom of the mast, if they are rough can make it harder to raise the main.

Jib halyard, the jib halyard with the sister clips makes it easier to raise and lower the jib. Make sure you understand how the jib halyard is supposed to be run.

hillbilly_sailor wrote:

I have the pop in port hole caps but they should be fine for light wind lake sailing.

Replace those, it's easy and the pop-offs leak, even from rain if they are old enough.

SRM, I suspect the dagger wells are the big leakers. The old bead of caulk or whatever was put there is dried, cracked and pulled away from the joint. Also the glass is showing on the bottoms so I was thinking a bubble test would be useless until these two issues were addressed. I will do one this weekend and post the results. Can you link me to the post with the list of materials for a bottom job? I am having a hard time finding that thread.

Damon, getting my jib rigged is the most frustrating thing of rigging the boat but I am not sure what is a sister clips halyard so I need to study the assembly and parts guide to get the terminology down.

Again, you can speculate about the leak location all you want, but until you actually do the bubble test, you won't know for sure. It can be done in a couple minutes (use a spray bottle filled with soapy water to go around the suspect areas).

Bubble test +1!!!!! these boats can take a lot before "needing" repair. It's difficult to seal it properly, and you won't know if you've done any good unless you do a bubble test before and after. Spray everything and check everything, run your hand along rigging checking for fraying, check that everything that should move, moves, and things that shouldn't move, shouldn't move. If you cover your boat, then your hatch covers will probably be fine, but you have to make sure that the boat stays dry inside. Or you can replace them, it's cheap and fairly easy to do.

I'd say the halyard flapper is definitely up to personal preference. It was frustrating at first when I didn't fully understand it's purpose, but after a few times I got used to it, and I actually like it. You just have to pay attention when you're bringing the sail up, and when you hear the "click" or see the flapper flip, be careful not to bring the sail up beyond the flapper, and just let the ring settle down into the hook. I like that I can bring down my main with a quick tug on the halyard, rather than having to rotate the mast... but it really is just a personal preference.

The cracks around the drain plug seem superficial, I wouldn't worry about them too much, but I'd be a little curious what it looks like behind that fitting once you remove it.

My boat had pop in ports and I replaced them right away... they were too much hassle for me, especially when I had an... ahem... buoyancy problem and needed to bail quickly. They were also cracked, had cracked o-rings and a cracked flange ring, and over all just looked too cheap for my tastes.

Now about that starboard hull... I have experienced something like that before, after losing a drain plug out on the lake. My solution was to plug it with a spare rudder adjusting screw I had on hand, which ALMOST fit, bail out and keep on sailing. Half a hull full of water by the end of the day, took about 12 minutes to drain. That is a LOT of water to leak into the hull regularly. Maybe it's possible that the drain plug is leaking that badly, if the plug or drain port is badly damaged, but I would be concerned and 1) fix the drain, 2) perform the bubble test, 3) if all else fails visually inspect the dagger trunk after launching to see if you can see any leaks in that area.

Welcome Hillbilly! The mere fact your gelcoat is worn off on your keels doesn't mean your hulls should be leaking. My keels are even more worn than yours yet my hulls are bone dry. Now, if your fiberglass is cracked, that's another story. I did have a leaky dagger well flange when I first bought my boat (1-2 gallons like your good hull) which I fixed. I ran a long bead of epoxy along a fairly firm yet bendable piece of plastic and then smeared the epoxy to the flange by going in through the bottom (position bead on flange, pull down). I used my gloved finger to smear it into the corners. Done.

As others have said, you are definitely going to want to do a soap test. I remember someone once sharing pictures of hull separation that wasn't at all noticeable to the naked eye during inspection but lead to major "flooding" when the hull was under stress i.e, under sail. A bubble test revealed the guy's deck was separating from his hull. In any event, a half-full hull while troubling but can likely be fixed. Good luck.

Hey thanks a lot you guys for the good advice. I will do the bubble test Saturday and post the results.

Where is the best place to get replacement parts? My closest Hobie dealer is Cincinnati 6 hours away so l am thinking it will need to be some online place.

Also what is a good price for wings and what kinds can I use? I think we would enjoy the comfort of having them but I would hate for the wings to be more than the $700 I gave for the boat.

Last thing, I keep the boat on the lawn mast up with the jib furled. Then to go sailing I just launch, hoist the main, drop the daggers and rudders and take off. Should the jib have some kind of cover on it while it is sitting furled? If so what do I need and where do I get one

There is what's called a "snorkel" for the jib, available online, ebay, local sail guy can make one... search the forum for some guys making their own. Wings are usually around 500 bucks and up and you can mount either the magnum or the SX wings if you get the mounting hardware.